Outdoor enthusiasts, recreational hunters, and photographers have long recognized that live animals and game, and particularly live waterfowl, are attracted to areas that appear to be inhabited by similar animals. For this reason, hunters have used decoys to attract live game to within shooting distance of a hunter's rifle, shotgun or other weapon, and within prime viewing distance of photographers and other outdoor enthusiasts. Likewise, decoys and other animal-shaped structures are also often used to deter certain animals from entering into an area such as an owl or hawk shaped decoy employed to keep mice away from an area.
In order to be effective, a decoy must resemble the animal. In theory, the more life-like a decoy will look, the more likely that the intended animal will be fooled by the decoy into behaving as intended. For example, numerous hunters place duck decoys at or near the surface of the water to signal to other ducks to approach the area. A large industry has formed around the creation and selling of these types of decoys. However, traditional decoys remain limited in appearance in that they primarily focus on displaying the dominant colors of an animal as perceived by humans.
An animal's true coloration is not so limited. Many animals in nature possess photonic crystals in their fur and feathers, which cause the colors of those feathers to shift as varying light waves reflect off the feathers. For example, in ducks, and more particularly in mallard ducks, these photonic crystals are especially notable for their iridescence and exceptionally bright coloration. It is believed that the color shifts are important to assist the animal in camouflage, communication, sensing, attractant for mating, and other not yet explored manners. A variety of ducks have dominant colorations including the typical greens, browns, whites, etc. However, as light moves across or reflects off the duck's feathers, subtle color shifts occur revealing secondary colors which vary from the primary colors, ranging from bright green to deep violet.
A decoy device is provided herein which aims to mimic the true natural coloration in animals such as ducks, including their secondary and even tertiary colors, through the use of a color shifting paint which will reflect varying colors as light passes across the paint or hits the decoy in different angles.